


Breakfast at Joel's

by Joels_revolver



Category: The Last of Us (Video Games)
Genre: Attempt at Humor, Father-Daughter Relationship, Fluff, Gen, Hijinks & Shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:28:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,484
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26271136
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Joels_revolver/pseuds/Joels_revolver
Summary: Looking at Ellie, Dina and Jesse sitting at his table, Joel wonders when this became his life. He has teenagers barging into his house at all hours of the morning like they own the place, and it doesn’t even bother him.He decides not to question it and takes a sip of his coffee.
Relationships: Ellie & Joel (The Last of Us)
Comments: 9
Kudos: 167





	Breakfast at Joel's

Joel is standing at the kitchen range, a cup of coffee in one hand and flipping a pancake with the other, adding it to the growing pile of golden-brown pancakes on the counter. He counts ten, which means five for each. That should do it. He sets them on the kitchen table and adds two plates, two forks and two knives. Not a moment later his front door burst open and Ellie greets him with a cheerful “Good morning, Joel!”

Needless to say, Joel is immediately suspicious. He narrows his eyes at Ellie, taking in her reddened cheeks, windswept hair and, most unsettling, her… _awakeness._ Usually Ellie comes trudging into his house, still half-asleep, muttering something about how no one could possibly get up this early in the morning and be expected to function, after which she would slump down at the kitchen table, pillow her head on her arms and falls asleep again, until Joel would put some food under her nose. That usually got her to liven up.

This stage of alertness on the other hand is… disconcerting.

“Are you in a hurry?”

“In a hurry to get breakfast, I’m starving!” Ellie strides past him and sits down at the table, promptly shoveling a pancake down her throat.

“Coffee?” Joel asks half-heartedly.

Ellie pulls a face. “Gross.”

“Says the one talking with her mouth full.”

Ellie sends him an exaggerated close-lipped smile, without stopping her chewing and reaches for a second pancake.

Joel sighs, reminding himself that this is, in fact, what he signed up for when he let a fifteen-year-old move into his backyard, and that he only has himself to blame.

Before he can move to join Ellie at the table, the door bursts open a second time and Dina rushes in.

Not… entirely unusual, although she normally knocks first.

“Morning, Joel,” she says like she didn’t just almost shatter the window with the door knob. 

“Morning.” Joel takes in her dishevelled appearance, not so dissimilar to Ellie’s, and decides that he probably doesn’t want to know. “Want some coffee?”

“Ah, I think I’ll pass, thanks,” Dina’s perks up at the sight of Ellie eating pancakes. “I’ll take a pancake, though,” she says and sits down at Joel’s plate.

“Help yourself,” Joel mutters to no one at all and goes into the kitchen to get himself another plate. He almost drops it when the slams open _again_ and Jesse comes tumbling in. 

That’s definitely new.

“You _guys_ I almost got- oh.” Jesse stops mid sentence, looking at Joel like he’s surprised to see him there. In his own house.

Joel takes a breath, but can’t think of anything to say, so he just asks, “Coffee?”

“Er…”

“Nevermind.” 

Honestly, why does he even try… 

He gives Jesse his plate. “Have a pancake, I guess.”

“Awesome.” Jesse joins Ellie and Dina at the table, seamlessly falling into conversation with them, while piling pancakes on his plate. Three at once, Joel notices with some alarm. If he wants to get his breakfast today, he should probably get a move on. 

Looking at Ellie, Dina and Jesse sitting at his table, Joel wonders when this became his life. He has teenagers barging into his house at all hours of the morning like they own the place, and it doesn’t even bother him. He decides not to question it and takes a sip of his coffee.

Just when he’s about to sit down to finally get a pancake himself, an insistent rapping almost knocks the door of its hinges.

Joel catches Ellie’s eye across the room. “You got some more friends I don’t know about?”

“Miller! I know you’re in there, open up!”

The kids stop mid chewing, throwing panicked glances, first at each other, then at Joel, who is starting to get an idea of what exactly is going on this morning. He raises an eyebrow at Ellie, before moving to open the door. He comes face to face with the local grouch, Mister Finch.

“Where are they?” Finch growls with a finger raised at Joel’s chest.

Joel throws a look over his shoulder at Ellie, Dina and Jesse frantically shaking their heads at him. He looks at Finch again.

“Where is who?”

“Oh, don’t play coy with me, Miller, I know they’re hiding around here somewhere.”

“I’m afraid I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“That little brat of yours and her friends!”

Joel stiffens, squaring his shoulders and towering over the smaller man. “Excuse me?”

Finch takes a step back, slowly lowering his finger. The color in his face is steadily turning from red to white. His mouth opens and closes several times, but all he ends up saying is, “you just wait until Maria hears about this,” and he stalks off.

Joel scoffs, shaking his head at Finch’s retreating figure and closes the door. He makes his way back to the breakfast table, staring down at the three teenagers, but mostly at Ellie, since the other two are doing a not so subtle job of avoiding his eyes. 

“Care to explain?”

“Uh…” Ellie glances at Dina and Jesse, but no help is coming. She takes a breath. “Okay, so it’s actually a pretty funny story. Remember that baseball set you found me?”

“I already don’t like where this is headed.”

“Well, we were practicing…”

“Uh-huh.”

“...and sort of accidently smashed Finch’s window.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“Yeah, so then we thought, if the window is already open, we might as well try to get our water guns back.”

Joel pinches the bridge of his nose, trying to pinpoint the moment he failed so horrendously in his parenting, but then he remembers that he doesn’t actually do any parenting at all and feels a little better.

“What I’m hearing,” he begins, “is that you and your friends smashed the window _on purpose,_ in order to get the water guns Finch confiscated, because you found them while sneaking out.”

Ellie looks to the side for a moment as if going through the events in her head. “...yes?”

“And y’all are in my house now because…?”

“The first rule of pulling off a heist, Joel,” Ellie states like it’s the most obvious thing in the world, “if you get caught, split up and meet back in a secure location.”

“How is my house a secure location?”

“Well, it has you in it, doesn’t it?”

Joel doesn’t know if he should feel flattered or offended.

“Ellie…”

“Don’t just look at me. These two had a part in it, too,” Ellie says pointing at Dina and Jesse, who are still looking at anything but Joel.

“Oh, I think they got the message. Ellie, you can’t go smashing people’s windows in and you definitely can't break into their houses. Especially not in broad daylight. First rule if you need to smuggle something out of a house is to-”

Wait.

What is he doing?

Three pairs of very attentive eyes are staring back at him, waiting for the big reveal.

Joel shuts his mouth. “Nevermind.”

“Oh, come on, Joel-”

“No. I ain’t telling you how to smuggle stuff.”

“Not even-”

“Not for all the coffee in the world.”

Ellie’s shoulders slump, along with Dina’s and Jesse’s. “You’re no fun.”

“Sue me for not wanting to turn you into a criminal.” 

Joel pulls out a chair from under the table and sits down, studying the three teenagers already back at eating pancakes. “Okay, I gotta ask: Did you at least get your water guns back?”

Ellie gives him a look. “Joel, please. That wasn’t my first time stealing water guns. Of course we got them back.”

Joel’s lips stretch into a slow smile, and yes maybe he feels just a little bit proud. Not that he could ever tell Ellie that, at least not when it comes to housebreaking. He has a feeling she knows, though, because her lips stretch into an answering smile and before he knows it, Joel is laughing. Ellie, Dina and Jesse join and just like that Joel has a house filled with laughter; something he hasn’t had in a very long time. 

This is, no doubt, one of the best mornings he’s had in twenty years.

Even though he never does get to eat his pancake.

***

Later, when Ellie, Dina and Jesse have left, undoubtedly getting up to more shenanigans, and he’s sitting on his porch, enjoying the cool morning air with a second cup of coffee, Maria comes by. 

“Morning, Joel.”

“Mornin’.”

“Finch told me to talk to you. Something about Ellie, Dina and Jesse breaking into his house?”

“I wouldn’t know anything about that.”

Maria smiles knowingly, raising an amused eyebrow. “I hope you told them not to do it again.”

“I really have no clue what you’re talking about.”

Maria huffs out a laugh. “You’re hopeless.”

“Sure am.” Joel lifts his mug. “You want a coffee?”

Maria’s eyes light up. “I’d love one.”


End file.
